VTA ST-120 Noise

Last night I fell asleep while listening to music for maybe an hour and immediately turned off the amp and preamp. I couldn't fall back to sleep so I decided to turn the system back on and heard hissing and rumbling through the right channel. Figured a tube went bad so I turned everything off. Found a post about noise on this forum that suggested cleaning the tube sockets. I figured wiggling the tubes around might help and sure enough it did. I listened to another CD and shut the system down.

What has happened is either (1) a dust issue on the tube sockets in which case you should use remove each tube and use an electrical contact cleaner on the tube sockets and/or the tube pins OR (2) you have tensioning issue in which the socket pins don't grab the tube pins as hard as they should. My suggestion would be to first try cleaning the tube sockets with any electrical contact cleaner. This is probably more likely the issue ..

Bob have you ever done anything more about coming out with a 100 watt/channel amp based on KT-120 tubes? I seem to recall someone asking that a while ago and I thought you said you may look into it. Just wondering.

Sprags wrote:That seems to have solved the problem. I'll keep an ear on it.

Bob have you ever done anything more about coming out with a 100 watt/channel amp based on KT-120 tubes? I seem to recall someone asking that a while ago and I thought you said you may look into it. Just wondering.

What audiobill has said is the answer. The VTA M-125 monoblocks fit that power range .. To design a 100 WPC amp on one chassis would bring the costs up to maybe beyond what the M-125 costs are. It would also be a pretty heavy amp. Maybe 70 to 75 pounds .. When you get up in the 100+ watt range for a tube amp, having monoblocks makes more sense.